Maria Margaret Lopes

The Shaping of Latin American Museums of Natural History, 1850-1990

This essay reflects upon the milieu and the character of Brazilian and Argentinean natural history museums during the second half of the nineteenth century. It argues that the museums were influenced not only by European and North American museums but by each other. Museum directors in the two countries knew each other and interacted. Some of the relationships between these museums were friendly and cooperative, but because they were in young, emerging nations, they also became deeply involved in the invention of nationality in their respective countries and interacted as rivals and competitors. Even through rivalry, however, they contributed to each others development, as did rivalry among museums within each of the two countries. Later in the century they went well beyond the nationalist perspective, finding, through their research into paleontology and anthropology in their regions, a continental and uniquely South American scientific perspective, defined in reaction to North American and European views.

Entre mares e continentes: aspectos da trajetória científica de Hermann von Ihering, 1850-1930

This paper covers some periods in Hermann von Ihering’s scientific trajectory: his training in zoology in Germany and Naples, his international activities based in Brazil, and his return to Germany. It deals with aspects of the formulation of his theories on land bridges. It focuses on the network of contacts he maintained with German emigres like himself, and primarily with Florentino Ameghino, which allowed him to interact in international scientific circles. It mentions excerpts of his letters and his publications in the periods when he began corresponding with Ameghino (1890), when he travelled to Europe in search of support for his theories (1907), and when he published his book on the history of the Atlantic Ocean (1927).

Trayectorias y desafíos de la historiografía de los museos de historia natural en América Del Sur

En el siglo XIX los museos de historia natural de America del Sur se constituyeron en instrumentos clave para el intercambio y la circulacion de datos y especimenes y, en ese sentido, en loci privilegiados de la infraestructura de las ciencias y del saber. Almacenaron tal cantidad de objetos y colecciones que los organizadores de estas instituciones se enfrentaron al problema de como guardarlos y exhibirlos dandoles un orden que pudiera entenderse. Por eso, los museos no pueden separarse de la historia del papel, del archivo y de los catalogos. Este articulo repasa algunas cuestiones de la historiografia producida en las ultimas decadas, discutiendo, entre otras cosas, la identificacion acritica entre museos, memoria y representacion de la nacion. A su vez, propone el desafio de como escribir la historia de los museos incorporando los agentes humanos y no humanos y el conjunto de circunstancias que sustentan sus exitos y fracasos.

Filling in the Picture: Nineteenth-Century Museums in Spanish and Portuguese America

This special issue comprising articles on Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico is devoted to museums established over the long nineteenth century in Spanish and Portuguese America. It features a variety of museums: from national to provincial, from monumental to one-room shows, from general to those devoted to a single subject, from lost to still existing. Awide variety of institutions in North, Central, and South America are examined in a century that witnessed the last reforms of the Iberian empires, the impact of Napoleonic politics on the Atlantic world, the long processes inaugurated by the wars of Revolution and Independence, the establishment of the Brazilian empire, and the convoluted configuration of the new Latin American Republics. The contributions cover a period that begins with the establishment of new general museums in Mexico (1825) and Bogota (1823). Miruna Achim, in her article, calls this moment ‘the trial years’. A complete continental survey would also have included studies of museums founded in Rio de Janeiro (1818), Buenos Aires (1823), Santiago de Chile (1823), Lima (1826), and Charleston (in South Carolina), all of which faced the same difficulties. A number of the following articles remark, in fact, on the ephemeral character of those creations. Institutional accounts and current historiography have tended to make a connection with later, surviving establishments. From a historiographical point of view, however, one may ask whether it is legitimate to insist on these connections, which tend to canonize a notion of permanence attaching to present-day museums. The period covered in this volume finishes with the establishment late in the nineteenth century of museums devoted to art, history, or natural history in Sao Paulo, Salvador in Bahia, Amazonas, La Plata, and Buenos Aires. By discussing all these institutions in one place, we want to address historiographical problems that museum history journal, Vol. 9 No. 1, January, 2016, 3–12

A Museum in the Heart of Amazonia: One Man's Laboratory

The Amazon Botanical Museum — Museu Botânico do Amazonas — opened in 1883 and closed in 1890. Despite its brief life, the Museum was the first scientific institution in the Amazon Province of Brazil. Directed by the Brazilian botanist João Barbosa Rodrigues, the Museum aimed to be a modern institution similar to natural history museums in Europe and the United States. In addition to taxonomic studies of botanical and ethnographic collections collected in the Amazon region, the Museum also intended to develop studies in applied botany in medicine and industry. This article explores some aspects of the history of the Botanical Museum and examines the importance of Barbosa Rodrigues’ individual agency in the Museums organization and studies of the Brazilian Amazon. It also demonstrates that the Museum was fundamental to improving Barbosa Rodrigues’ career as a botanist and ethnographer in the context of emerging Brazilian scientific communities of the period.The Amazon Botanical Museum — Museu Botânico do Amazonas — opened in 1883 and closed in 1890. Despite its brief life, the Museum was the first scientific institution in the Amazon Province of Brazil. Directed by the Brazilian botanist Joao Barbosa Rodrigues, the Museum aimed to be a modern institution similar to natural history museums in Europe and the United States. In addition to taxonomic studies of botanical and ethnographic collections collected in the Amazon region, the Museum also intended to develop studies in applied botany in medicine and industry. This article explores some aspects of the history of the Botanical Museum and examines the importance of Barbosa Rodrigues’ individual agency in the Museums organization and studies of the Brazilian Amazon. It also demonstrates that the Museum was fundamental to improving Barbosa Rodrigues’ career as a botanist and ethnographer in the context of emerging Brazilian scientific communities of the period.

Buenos Aires, 1884: de cómo la fragilidad de unos esqueletos derrumbaron el proyecto de un Gran Museo Nacional

Buenos Aires, 1884. How the fragility of a few skeletons triumphed over the project for a Grand National Museum. The museums of our continent are a result from a combination of factors, such as cultural trends, rivalry between cities, countries, and research teams, and the affinities or exchanges with metropolitan centers. Alliances and scientific wars determined the course of these institutions. As we show in this paper, in the 1880s and 1890s, competition between individuals, the Museo General de La Plata of the Province of Buenos Aires and the Museo Nacional of Buenos Aires would define the paths they would follow and a race for the possession of a large fossiliferous collection.